- Sunk Russian ship may have been carrying submarine nuclear reactors to North Korea
Source: CNN
“A Russian cargo ship likely carrying two nuclear reactors for submarines, possibly destined for North Korea, suffered a series of explosions and sank in unexplained circumstances, about 60 miles off the coast of Spain, a CNN investigation has found. The extraordinary fate of the Ursa Major has been shrouded in secrecy since it sank on December 23, 2024. … US nuclear ‘sniffer’ aircraft have flown over the sunken ship twice in the past year, according to public flight data. And its wreckage was also visited a week after it sank by a suspected Russian spy ship which set off four further explosions …. The Spanish government has said little, only releasing a statement on February 23 after pressure from opposition lawmakers. It confirmed that the ship’s Russian captain had told Spanish investigators the Ursa Major was carrying ‘components for two nuclear reactors similar to those used in submarines,’ and that he was unsure if they were loaded with nuclear fuel.” (05/11/26)
- Federal charges filed against Dali operator, employee in crash that caused the deadly collapse of Baltimore’s Key Bridge
Source: WTOP News
“The Justice Department filed criminal charges against the operator of the Dali and an employee on board the container ship that struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Maryland, leading to its collapse and the death of six people in March 2024. The indictment unsealed Tuesday accuses two corporations and the ship’s technical operator of causing the death of the construction workers and the collapse of the Baltimore bridge on March 26, 2024. Federal prosecutors announced the indictment in Baltimore, naming Synergy Marine Pte Ltd., based in Singapore, and Synergy Maritime Pte Ltd., based in Chennai, India.” (05/11/26)
- Senate confirms Warsh for seat on Fed Board, clearing path to become chair
Source: Politico
“The Senate confirmed Kevin Warsh’s nomination to a 14-year term on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors on Tuesday, teeing up a final vote to make the ally of President Donald Trump the central bank’s next chair. The 51-45 vote was largely along party lines, with Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania the only Democrat to vote in favor of Warsh, a former Fed governor and Wall Street banker. Warsh’s nomination to be the central bank’s chair for a four-year term requires a separate Senate vote, which is expected as soon as Wednesday.” (05/11/26)
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/12/senate-warsh-fed-board-chair-trump-00915835
- Uganda: Musevini takes oath for record seventh term
Source: The Standard [Kenya]
“Yoweri Museveni has been sworn in as Uganda’s president for a seventh term at Kololo Ceremonial Grounds in Kampala, extending a rule that began in 1986 to at least 2031. The inauguration, themed ‘Protecting the Gains: Making a Qualitative Leap into High Middle-Income Status,’ came after Museveni secured 71.65 per cent of the vote in the January 15 general elections. His main challenger, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu of the National Unity Platform, garnered about 24 to 25 per cent and rejected the results, citing electoral irregularities, intimidation and restrictions during the campaign period.” (05/12/26)
- Iran war takes colour out of Japanese snack maker Calbee’s chips packaging
Source: Reuters
“Japan’s top maker of snacks has landed on a creative solution to conserve oil-derived input materials: it will switch its brightly coloured packaging to black and white. In an eye-catching move, Tokyo-based Calbee on Tuesday said it would temporarily use only two ink colours on 14 of its products including its Potato Chips, Kappa Ebisen snacks and the Frugra breakfast cereal. Products with the revised packaging will hit store shelves from May 25, it said. … Japanese companies have lately sought to minimise the impact of rising costs and input material shortages even as the government seeks to reassure the public and businesses over supplies. Printing ink requires naphtha, an oil derivative for which Japan relies on imports from the Middle East for about 40% of its consumption.” (05/11/26)
- Greenland: US in closely guarded talks to open new bases
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“The US has been holding regular negotiations with Denmark to expand its military presence in Greenland, according to multiple officials familiar with the discussions, with talks between both sides progressing in recent months. US officials are seeking to open three new bases in the south of the territory, a semi-autonomous part of Denmark, as they work to resolve a diplomatic crisis sparked by President Donald Trump when he threatened to seize Greenland by force. Trump said in January that the US should ‘own’ Greenland to prevent Russia or China from taking it. He said this could happen ‘the easy way or the hard way.’ The White House confirmed the administration was engaged in high-level talks with Greenland and Denmark, but declined to comment on details of the negotiations.” (05/12/26)
- UK: Starmer tells cabinet meeting he intends to remain leader despite calls to resign
Source: CBC News [Canadian state media]
“British Prime Minister Keir Starmer defied calls to resign on Tuesday, telling ministers he would ‘get on with governing’ despite a ‘destabilizing’ 48 hours of growing calls to set out a timetable for his departure after an election drubbing. At a meeting of his cabinet team of ministers, Starmer, in the top job for less than two years, repeated that while he took responsibility for one of his Labour Party’s worst election defeats, there had been no official move to trigger a leadership contest. … Starmer’s defiance was in marked contrast to the feelings of many in his Labour Party. On Tuesday, a junior minister resigned after a handful of ministerial aides also left the government. Housing, communities and local government minister Miatta Fahnbulleh stepped down and urged Starmer ‘to do the right thing for the country.'” (05/11/26)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/starmer-uk-resign-cabinet-9.7196157
- UK: BBC unmasks key people smuggler in network behind most small boat crossings
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“A leading people smuggler, whose network is believed to be responsible for the majority of illegal cross-Channel journeys in recent years, has been unmasked by a BBC investigation. The 28-year-old Iraqi Kurd has evaded arrest for several years by operating under the alias ‘Kardo Ranya.’ He has kept his real name a closely guarded secret, which has frustrated law enforcement agencies in their efforts to issue an international warrant for his arrest. … using contacts in the smuggling world, my colleague Rob Lawrie and I were able to follow a trail from migrant camps on the northern French coast, all the way to Iraqi Kurdistan, obtaining Kardo Ranya’s real identity and details, and ultimately confronting him.” (05/12/26)
- eBay rejects GameStop’s $56 billion takeover bid
Source: CNBC
“eBay on Tuesday rejected GameStop’s $56 billion takeover proposal, calling the unsolicited bid ‘neither credible nor attractive.’ GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen last week unveiled an audacious bid for eBay, offering to acquire the online marketplace for $125 per share in a cash-and-stock deal. eBay is much larger than the video game retailer, with a market cap of just over $48 billion, while GameStop’s is roughly $10.3 billion. … Many Wall Street analysts threw cold water on the deal, citing a lack of meaningful synergies between the two companies. ” (05/11/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/12/ebay-rejects-gamestops-takeover-ryan-cohen.html
- Kuwait: Regime says Iranians attacked island where China helping to build a port
Source: SFGate
“Kuwait accused Iran of launching a failed attack earlier this month on an island where China is helping build a port in the Middle East nation. The accusation brought Tuesday came just before U.S. President Donald Trump was to depart for Beijing where he’ll meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in a high-stakes visit over the war and other issues. Iran didn’t immediately acknowledge the allegation by Kuwait, which came under attack by Iran in the war and during the shaky ceasefire still holding in the region. But that allegation and ongoing attacks throughout the region have threatened to reignite open warfare. The narrow Strait of Hormuz remains in Iran’s chokehold, the U.S. is maintaining a blockade against Iran and negotiations between the two countries appear at a standstill.” (05/12/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/us-ambassador-to-israel-says-israel-sent-iron-22254365.php
- Pakistan: Bomb Rigged to Rickshaw Explodes in Bazaar, Killing Nine
Source: US News & World Report
“A bomb rigged to a rickshaw exploded in a bazaar in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, killing at least nine people and wounding more than two dozen others, police said, in the latest sign of escalating violence in the region bordering Afghanistan. The attack took place in Lakki Marwat, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, local police chief Azmat Ullah said. He said that two traffic police officers and a woman were among those killed. Ullah provided no further details but said traffic police officers were apparently the target of the attack. The bombing also damaged nearby shops. Most of the dead and wounded were passersby, he said. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing.” (05/11/26)
- A $1.5 Trillion Military Budget Is a Gift to the Grifters
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ron Paul“Last week ‘Secretary of War’ Pete Hegseth insulted Americans by claiming that a 50 percent increase in the US military budget – from an incomprehensible one trillion dollars to an impossible one and a half trillion – was a ‘fiscally responsible investment.’ ‘Thanks to President Trump’s $1.5 trillion defense budget, this War Department has moved from bureaucracy to business,’ he said last Thursday. In a way he was right, though. The huge increase is much more about ‘business’ than what is needed to protect the United States from potential invasion. But it isn’t the kind of ‘business’ that most supporters of free markets would applaud. On the contrary, this is the business of transferring massive amounts of wealth from the struggling middle and working classes to the well-connected Beltway elite based on lies and scare tactics.” (05/11/26)
- The “Security” Case for Trump’s Ballroom: A Win-Win Proposal
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp“Senate Republicans, the Associated Press reports, plan to give the Secret Service $1 billion for ‘security upgrades’ to president Donald Trump’s (supposedly $400 million, supposedly donation-funded) White House ballroom project. After an assassination attempt outside the Washington Hilton ballroom hosting the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in April, Republicans began boosting the ballroom itself as a presidential safety solution. Every time the president ventures forth to environments inhabited or surrounded by the hoi polloi, they point out, the Secret Service has to create bespoke environments within otherwise open facilities to ensure that he’s not shot at, yelled at, glared at, or annoyed. Better to keep him in a facility that’s controlled 24/7 for his safety and convenience. That’s fair, and it occurs to me that, done rightly, adding a secure ballroom to the White House could benefit not just presidential security but public convenience.” (05/11/26)
- Are markets coercive?
Source: Politics, Philosophy & Economics
by Matt Zwolinski“Are markets coercive? Contemporary debate is dominated by two answers. The first, longstanding among defenders of free markets, holds that voluntary exchange is non-coercive by definition: coercion enters the picture only when rights are violated. The second, revived from Robert Hale’s 1923 essay and embraced today by progressive legal scholars and post-liberal conservatives alike, holds that markets are pervasively coercive because property rights backed by state power constitute a system of mutual coercion. Both answers fail, but the Halean answer fails in the more interesting way.” (05/11/26)
- The Tyranny of Christian Zionism
Source: The Realist Review
by James W Carden“In the nearly two-and-a-half months since Donald Trump launched a war against Iran at the behest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the iron grip that Christian Zionism has on Washington has become too obvious to ignore. Briefly, Christian Zionism is a theo-political ideological construct that posits a Christian duty to support the state of Israel, come what may, owing to a divine mandate for its existence that is said to derive from the Old Testament. … Anyone tempted to blame American Jews (2.4 percent of the US population) for Washington’s long and puzzling romance with Israel should look elsewhere. … The perhaps overused term ‘Israel Lobby’ might more accurately be referred to as the Christian Zionist Lobby, given the sheer size of its leading organizations. Christians United for Israel has over 10 million members.” (05/11/26)
https://therealistreview.substack.com/p/on-the-tyranny-of-christian-zionism
- Should There Be a Cap on Social Security Benefits?
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Laurence M Vance“The Washington Post recently pointed out that ‘starting this year, the Social Security benefits formula gives the very-highest-income couples who retire at age 67 over $100,000’ per year. And the Post is very upset about it: ‘With the federal government $39 trillion in debt and running deficits larger than during the Great Depression, there’s no reason that the largest federal spending program should be sending six figures in annual benefits to rich people.’ But I thought that Social Security recipients were entitled to collect benefits because they paid into the system their whole working lives? Isn’t that what we are continually told?” (05/11/26)
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/should-there-be-a-cap-on-social-security-benefits/
- Power sharing as trust building in Hungary
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff“One gauge of a society’s level of interpersonal trust lies in how much the central government shares power – with local authorities, courts, private citizen groups, and others. For the last 16 years in Hungary, such trust has been evaporating. An increasingly authoritarian leader, Viktor Orbán, had been centralizing power and creating ‘us versus them’ polarization around often-fabricated issues. On Saturday, all that changed with the swearing-in of a new prime minister, Péter Magyar. His broad-tent Tisza party won big in elections a month ago. In his inaugural speech, Mr. Magyar pledged not to rule over Hungary but to ‘serve’ it – through reconciliation, inclusiveness, and democratic renewal. ‘We are going to remake the constitutional system so that such a concentration of power can never happen again,’ he declared.” (05/11/26)
- Prosecutorial Shell Game?
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob“The Department of Justice’s case against the egregious former head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, James Comey, is as weak a case as he could hope. Comey had shared an image on social media — a photo of shells on a beach gathered together to markout ’86 47′ — and, when people interpreted it as a possible threat, he deleted it. … Don’t get me wrong. Was it a dumb thing for the disgraced former government official to share? Sure. But even outstandingly horrible former FBI heads have freedom of silly speech. This is not the first time Comey’s been prosecuted by the Trump DOJ. The last time it fizzled. And, considering the First Amendment, this one will fizzle.” (05/11/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/05/12/prosecutorial-shell-game/
- Superior Social Engineering
Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders“I’ve never had much time for social engineering. Not only is it usually an affront to freedom, but it usually comes with perverse unintended consequences. Still, one might make the case: If somebody’s gonna do it, it ought to be done better. While I would never want to offend the sensibilities of those who just want to be left alone by the authorities, I would like at least to imagine less poorly designed systems than the ones we currently suffer under.” (05/11/26)
https://underthrow.substack.com/p/superior-social-engineering
- Choking on Trump’s Gas Prices? Electric Vehicles Are the Heimlich Maneuver
Source: TomDispatch
by Juan Cole“After British troops had beaten German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s tank forces at the Second Battle of El Alamein in Egypt on November 4, 1942, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill declared, ‘This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps the end of the beginning.’ The same might now be said about humanity’s struggle to defeat the dire threat of global climate change caused by our never-ending burning of fossil fuels. The illegal war of aggression on Iran, abruptly launched on February 28, 2026, by the governments of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump, has indeed provoked a global energy crisis of a unique kind.” (05/12/26)
https://tomdispatch.com/the-electric-car-is-the-only-winner-in-the-latest-iran-war/
- “Boneless Wings” Aren’t Really Wings. Is That Fraud?
Source: Reason
by Jacob Sullum“Back in January 2023, Aimen Halim bought an order of ‘boneless wings’ at a Buffalo Wild Wings outlet in Mount Prospect, Illinois. At the time, he claims, he assumed the product was composed of deboned chicken wing meat. But to his horror, he discovered that it was in fact made from chicken breast meat. That revelation resulted in a federal lawsuit: Halim sued the restaurant chain two months later, alleging breach of express warranty, common law fraud, and unjust enrichment. When U.S. District Judge John J. Tharp Jr. dismissed that lawsuit in February 2026, he did not question Halim’s claim of confusion about the nature of boneless wings. But even if Halim honestly thought he was getting a deboned version of Buffalo Wild Wings’ ‘traditional’ wings, Tharp said, ‘his complaint has no meat on its bones,’ because ‘Halim does not plausibly allege that reasonable consumers are deceived by boneless wings.'” (05/11/26)
https://reason.com/2026/05/12/are-boneless-wings-fraudulent/
- How Democrats’ rage over Virginia gerrymander exposes their larger contempt for democracy
Source: New York Post
by Daniel McCarthy“Virginia Democrats are doing an unwitting service to the whole country, by revealing just how hostile their party is to the most essential checks and balances. Democrats violated the state’s constitution by pushing through a referendum to take four House seats away from Republicans. But when Virginia’s Supreme Court threw out the illegal map, Democrats didn’t back down: They started thinking of ways to get rid of every justice on the court, so they could pack it with new ones expressly picked to return a verdict more favorable to the party. If the Democrat-controlled Virginia legislature could drop the existing mandatory judicial retirement age from the current 73 all the way down to 54, every justice on the bench could be removed and replaced by compliant partisans.” (05/12/26)
- Are Republicans Bolting from Trump?
Source: Exiled Policy
by Jason Pye“Even as Trump’s job approval rating falls, Republicans and MAGA supporters aren’t running away.” (05/11/26)
https://exiledpolicy.substack.com/p/are-republicans-bolting-from-trump
- Respecting Reform Voters Means Telling Them They’re Wrong and Immoral
Source: Liberal Currents
by Toby Buckle“Understand politics with this one weird trick: just tell the truth about the far right.” (05/11/26)
- Can We Learn To Stop Worrying and Love Multipolarity?
Source: Gideon’s Substack
by Noah Millman“Or are we going to rage against the dying of the light?” (05/11/26)
https://gideons.substack.com/p/can-we-learn-to-stop-worrying-and
- More Houses, More Choices
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Keli‘i Akina“A new report from economists at the University of Hawai‘i makes a point that many of us have known all along: If we want to end the housing crisis, we need to build more homes. That’s because each new unit creates a chain of housing openings. A family that moves into a new house leaves behind an older one that is slightly less expensive, which another family moves into, freeing up another home at a lower price point, and so on. This is often referred to as a ‘filtering effect,’ and it’s not just an optimistic theory—research has revealed it to be true.” (05/11/26)
- An Excess of Democrophilia
Source: Law & Liberty
by Peter Campbell“As we enter another Cold War, we should prepare ourselves for the progressive critics who eagerly allege hypocrisy when democratic powers support non-democracies. In the Free World’s first struggle against a global communist power, the Soviet Union, American statesmen often made the prudential decision to support authoritarian leaders whose interests aligned with America’s. As American statecraft navigates the sequel to that struggle, Hamid’s [book The Case for American Power] is the first of likely many more to critique an American foreign policy that does not have a default preference for democracy.” (05/11/26)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/an-excess-of-democrophilia/
- Israel Accuses New York Times Of Antisemitic Journalism, And Other Notes
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“The Israeli government is currently accusing The New York Times of antisemitic blood libel for publishing a report on Israel’s already well-documented systemic rape of Palestinian prisoners. Contrary to popular belief, the highest award in journalism is not the Pulitzer. The highest award in all of journalism is being accused of antisemitism by the Israeli government for factual reporting. But the New York Times is unworthy of this award. The Times has been running cover for the Gaza holocaust from the very beginning with extensively documented biases in its reporting, and played a leading role in promoting the atrocity propaganda about mass rapes on October 7. Israel’s abuses were actively facilitated by the New York Times, including its systemic sexual abuse of Palestinian prisoners.” (05/12/26)
- Why Surging Federal Debt Matters
Source: The Dispatch
by Jessica Riedl“It has become commonplace to dismiss concerns about soaring government debt as much ado about nothing—a modern case of the boy who cried wolf. Indeed, voters have cycled through catastrophic warnings about runaway deficits as far back as the Reagan administration, the 1992 Ross Perot presidential campaign, the mid-1990s ‘Republican Revolution’ in Congress, and the early-2010s Tea Party era. And yet, continually rising budget deficits have not brought a debt crisis. Instead, hysterical deficit concerns have been cynically deployed by minority parties to attack the agenda of the party in power—right before they seize power and start running up deficits of their own.” (05/11/26)
https://thedispatch.com/article/debt-gross-domestic-product-ratio-economic-effects/
- Central Bank Independence: How to preserve monetary policy from fiscal irresponsibility
Source: Students for Liberty
by Oscar Mario Tomianovic Parada“Central bank independence has become one of the basic benchmarks of any liberal democracy today. The notion of separating decisions on monetary policy from the hands of elected politicians is relatively recent. Yet it has spread so widely that we now tend to take it for granted. This widespread acceptance, however, leaves several important questions unanswered: what exactly is central bank independence, and why does it truly matter?” (05/11/26)
- Hondurasgate Looks Worse than Watergate and Iran-Contra Combined
Source: Washington Monthly
by Bill Scher“Trump pardoned a right-wing authoritarian convicted of cocaine trafficking, apparently to reinstate him to power in Honduras and undermine left-wing governments in Mexico and Colombia. So why isn’t America media covering it?” (05/11/26)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/05/12/hondurasgate-trump-honduras-juan-orlando-hernandez/
- George Bush’s 2005 Fowl Play
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Jeffrey A Tucker“A leading columnist for the Washington Post just wrote: ‘Hantavirus has an incubation period of up to 8 weeks and kills 30-40% of people who show symptoms …. It’s not pandemic yet and probably won’t be, but if it were, the rational action would be — lockdown.’ She added: ‘If this thing goes pandemic, I personally will be hiding in my house.’ Yes, and let the workers and peasants deliver food and drink to you while you safely type and tell the rest of what to do. We know how this works. Keep in mind that no one thought this way a quarter century ago. No one was pushing for society-wide lockdowns in the event of a pandemic. That changed in 2005.” (05/12/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/george-bushs-2005-fowl-play/
- “The View” Is a Cancer on the Culture and the Country
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter“It almost seems impossible, and I wouldn’t believe it if didn’t see it with my own eyes, but through the miracle of ‘new math’ and the sheer stupidity of the ABC News product ‘The View,’ it is not possible to bring five human beings together and make their collective IQ less than the sum of their individual IQs. How can people coming together be dumber collectively than individually? Skill, I have to assume, and really trying. I say trying because all the ladies on The View are so dumb that they have to be trying, like the whole show is some sort of dare. The end result is a show that makes its audience dumber: a cultural cancer on the country.” (05/12/26)
- Let’s Not Forget What Madison Said About War
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger“Amidst soaring gasoline prices and significant economic damage for the American people arising from President Trump’s war on Iran, we must never forget the most important factor in America’s never-ending foreign wars: the destruction of our liberty here at home. In this regard, it’s helpful to recall the wise and insightful words of James Madison, the father of our nation’s Constitution: ‘Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.'” (05/11/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/05/12/lets-not-forget-what-madison-said-about-war/
- How a Probable Situation Room Leak Made Someone $580 Million in 60 Seconds
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Thomas Karat“At 6:49 a.m. on Monday, March 23, the oil futures market was quiet. Pre-dawn Mondays are always quiet. There was no scheduled data release, no Federal Reserve speech, no obvious catalyst for any significant market activity. Then, in the span of 27 seconds, roughly 6,200 Brent and West Texas Intermediate futures contracts were sold — a notional value of approximately $580 million …. Simultaneously, approximately 6,000 S&P 500 e-Mini futures contracts were purchased, representing more than $2 billion in notional value. Sell oil. Buy stocks. A perfectly paired bet that would only make sense if you knew — if you were certain — that the geopolitical picture was about to improve dramatically. At 7:05 a.m., sixteen minutes later, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that the United States and Iran had been engaged in ‘productive conversations’ to end the war.” (05/11/26)
- Trump Accounts Are a Sick Joke, Not a Threat to Social Security
Source: CounterPunch
by Dean Baker“Many of the Trump crew seem to be delusional about Trump accounts. They claim to believe that they will replace Social Security. It shouldn’t be a surprise to us that many supporters of Trump are out of touch with reality, but that is not a reason for the rest of us to take their nonsense seriously. Let’s keep our eyes on the ball. This is not 3-dimensional chess; it is an account for newborn kids in which the government deposits $1,000.” (05/11/26)
- Europe’s Green Deal Is Unraveling
Source: The Daily Economy
by Mohamed Moutii“Over the past decade, Europe has played a leading role in shaping global climate policy, highlighted by the launch of the European Green Deal in 2019 — Ursula von der Leyen described it as a ‘man on the moon moment.’ The initiative aims to make Europe the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050 while fostering innovation and strengthening its industrial base. Yet several years later, the results are deeply disappointing. Instead of meeting its goals, the Green Deal is increasingly associated with higher energy costs, weakened competitiveness, and growing political backlash.” (05/11/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/europes-green-deal-is-unraveling/
- Adam Smith’s Legacy in Alberdi’s Argentina
Source: Law & Liberty
by Constanza Mazzina“The decades after Argentina’s founding are a testament to the promise of Smithian economic and political thought.” (05/11/26)
https://lawliberty.org/adam-smiths-legacy-in-alberdis-argentina/
- Trump’s troop withdrawals from Germany might backfire. Here’s why.
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by George Beebe“At first glance, the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw two battalions from Germany and cancel the planned deployment of intermediate-range ground-launched missiles there looks like a win for those who favor reducing America’s overseas military presence or prioritizing the Indo-Pacific over Europe. But how the United States retrenches and refocuses its foreign policy ambitions matters enormously. And the way this announcement was handled could ultimately prove to be a setback for both so-called ‘restrainers’ and ‘prioritizers’ as they seek to reshape U.S. foreign policy strategy.” (05/11/26)
- Has Trump’s Failed Iran War Destroyed the Unipolar World?
Source: Common Dreams
by Aamir R Mufti“The war launched by Israel and the United States on Iran on February 28 has already proven a turning point in world history. So many elements of geopolitics have coalesced in it that we won’t understand its full significance for some time to come. A ceasefire, especially one as chaotic and fragile as this one, is not the end of war, so the new realities may soon be replaced by others. But safe to say that none of the countries of the regions directly impacted by this war so far (from the Levant and the Persian Gulf all the way to South Asia, and of course the United States and Israel) will be able to return to the status quo antebellum.” (05/12/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/trump-china-unipolar-world
- What Happens When Americans Realize How Miserable We Are?
Source: Paul Krugman
by Paul Krugman“What will happen when Americans realize how miserable we are? Not in all respects, of course. But my guess is that relatively few Americans realize how much we are falling behind other nations on basic aspects of a civilized life, like health and safety.” (05/11/26)
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/what-happens-when-americans-realize
- The Inconsistencies of John Stuart Mill
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Wanjiru Njoya“Mill depicted socialist precepts in a way that would seem attractive to liberals who are constantly striving to create a better world. The quest for utopia — or as close to utopia as can be achieved with the right sorts of government interventions — is the quintessential mindset of the progressive liberal. … David Gordon has observed that Mill was not only a utopian, he was also ‘a propagandist anxious to replace Christianity with a Religion of Humanity, guided by intellectuals such as himself.’ In that sense Mill can be seen as typical of “The Anointed” as identified by Thomas Sowell.” (05/11/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/inconsistencies-john-stuart-mill
- Was the American Revolution Really a War Over Money?
Source: The Daily Economy
by Jeffrey Hummel“A sweeping new book portrays the Revolution as a struggle over competing monetary systems, rather than political liberty alone.” (05/12/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/was-the-american-revolution-really-a-war-over-money/
- David French’s Zelensky Hero Worship Distorts Reality
Source: The American Conservative
by Ted Galen Carpenter“The type of hero worship of Ukraine and its leader that French, Thiessen, Lévy, and others have expressed deserves disdain from any analyst displaying even a scintilla of realism. Kiev’s military achievements have been overwhelmingly the result of extensive outside assistance. The United States and its European allies have poured several hundred billion dollars into Ukraine — despite ample evidence of the regime’s authoritarianism and corruption. … Ukraine’s Western cheerleaders habitually ignore such troublesome details. They also conveniently ignore the many abuses that Zelensky’s regime has committed over the years.” (05/11/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/david-frenchs-zelensky-hero-worship-distorts-reality/
- Getting to Denmark
Source: Persuasion
by Francis Fukuyama“My admiration for Denmark is somewhat different from that of Senator Bernie Sanders. He likes Denmark’s social democracy. I instead marvel at the quality of government in this country, its efficiency and relative lack of corruption. We scarcely understand how the Denmark of the Vikings got to be modern Denmark, much less how to transform a contemporary underdeveloped country in a similar fashion. I knew that I had to return to Denmark last February when my president, Donald Trump, began threatening your country and talked once again about taking over Greenland. World order cannot exist without a minimal degree of trust, and today the United States has become a giant source of distrust.” (05/11/26)
- A Libertarian Reckoning
Source: Independent Political Report
by Kimber Fountain“Critics can blame caucuses and opportunistic former chairpersons eternally, but that will not change the fact that the underlying reason the Libertarian Party cratered is because when it mattered, when the country needed it most, the party was recklessly usurped by people who abandoned an entire half of core libertarian values and chose instead the last thing independent voters desire: a small-minded, watered-down version of bigoted Republican tribalism with directions on the package that read, ‘just add weed.’ In the truth-bound, honest world where most libertarians and independents reside, integrity is what sells. Conviction is what drives the masses. Contrary to common protestations, the party was not destroyed by infighting; that is a convenient detraction from the fact that the breakdown was entirely due to the ease with which external forces infiltrated.” (05/11/26)
https://independentpoliticalreport.com/2026/05/guest-essay-a-libertarian-reckoning/
- The Good Fight, 05/11/26
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Al Roth on Why People Should Be Free to Sell Their Kidneys.” (05/11/26)
- Rising, 05/12/26
Source: The Hill
“Robby Soave gives his radar on his concerns with the response to the hantavirus outbreak, as the U.S. government is not mandating a hospital quarantine for the Americans who were on the infected cruise ship.” (05/11/26)
- Cato Podcast, 05/12/26
Source: Cato Institute
“Washington’s Tariff Whack-a-Mole.” (05/12/26)
https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-podcast/washingtons-tariff-whack-mole
- The Bryan Hyde Show, 05/12/26
Source: The Bryan Hyde Show
“It’s my weekly visit with Eric Peters from Eric Peters Autos. Come join our fellowship at the Church of the Painful Truth and find hope in these troubling times.” (05/12/26)
- Advisory Opinions, 05/11/26
Source: The Dispatch
“The TED Talk Heard ‘Round the World.” (05/11/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/advisoryopinions/the-ted-talk-heard-round-the-world/
- Capital Record, episode 299
Source: National Review
“Ben Sasse Writes About Kids and Technology.” (05/11/26)
https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/capital-record/ben-sasse-writes-about-kids-and-technology/
- The Headlines, 05/11/26
Source: New York Times
“How Iran’s Internet Blackout Is Crippling Its Economy, and the Fight Over Fruit-Flavored Vapes.” (05/11/26)
- The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 05/11/26
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Sunsetting Visibly Worsens as Aides Go Full Cult All Around Him.” (05/11/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/210287/trump-sunsetting-visibly-worsens-aides-go-full-cult-around
- Pod Save America, episode 1160
- The Corbett Report, episode 501
Source: The Corbett Report
“I’ve just read a deeply fascinating and provocative book that affirms something I’ve been trying to articulate for three decades! So, join me today as I explore David Crystal’s The Fight For English and discover what the glorious anarchy of language has to teach us about the beautiful spontaneous order that defines our daily existence.” (05/11/26)
- Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast, episode 82
Source: Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast
“The CG Mailbag: Question Time.” (05/11/26)
https://cgpodcast.substack.com/p/ep-082-the-cg-mailbag-question-time
- Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 05/11/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“UAE Secretly Launched Attacks Against Iran, US ‘Disappointed’ in Taiwan Military Spending, and More.” (05/11/26)